Marketing and Sustainability Practice Flashcards

Flashcards covering the foundational concepts of marketing and sustainability, environmental reporting scopes, sustainable development definitions, consumer behavior models, and behavioral influence techniques.

Earth Overshoot Day

The date when natural resources consumed account for more than what the planet can renew in a whole year; in 2005 it was 25 August and in 2025 it is estimated as 24 July.

Sustainable Marketing Aim

To highlight and problematize areas where it is important to relate marketing to sustainability, including consumption, production, services, communication, business models, channels, and pricing.

Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD)

An EU requirement ensuring that companies with more than 500 employees or listed on the stock exchange are transparent in reporting sustainability consequences.

Hållbarhetslagen (2016)

The Swedish law translated from EU directives that makes sustainability reporting mandatory for specific companies regarding environment, social welfare, personnel, human rights, and anti-corruption.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

Rules beginning in 2024 for listed companies with more than 500 employees, expanding to companies with more than 250 employees between 2026-2028, and small/medium companies by 2027-2029.

Scope 1 Emissions

Direct greenhouse gas emissions from company-owned or controlled facilities and vehicles.

Scope 2 Emissions

Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by the reporting company.

Scope 3 Emissions

All other indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain, including both upstream activities like purchased goods and downstream activities like the use of sold products.

Greenwashing

The harmful act where companies participate in deceptive practices to make their operations or products appear more environmentally friendly than they actually are.

Sustainable Development

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, as defined by the UN Brundtland Commission in 1987.

Sustainability (as an end state)

The overarching goal of maintaining stability and harmony between social, economic, and environmental systems so they can endure over time.

Triple Bottom Line

A framework comprised of three pillars: economic viability, social equity, and environmental protection (also referred to as Profits, People, and Planet).

Soft Interpretation of Sustainability

Also known as weak sustainability, it suggests that natural resources can be substituted with others (e.g., generating wealth or housing) as long as the total capital is not reduced.

Hard Interpretation of Sustainability

Also known as strong sustainability, it maintains that some natural resources are critical and non-substitutable, emphasizing biological and ecological balance as the foundation.

Consumer Behavior

The dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behavior, and the environment by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives.

Sustainable Consumer Behavior

Actions resulting in decreases in adverse environmental impacts and utilization of natural resources across the entire lifecycle of a product or service.

Reference Groups

Groups that serve as direct or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming an individual's attitudes or behavior, such as locavores or aspirational groups.

The Big Five (OCEAN model)

A model of personality traits consisting of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Cognitive Dissonance

Buyer discomfort caused by post-purchase conflict, often occurring when there is a gap between consumer expectations and perceived product performance.

Complex Buying Behavior

Consumer behavior characterized by high involvement in a purchase and significant perceived differences among brands.

Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behavior

Consumer behavior that occurs when consumers are highly involved with an expensive or risky purchase but see little difference among brands.

Habitual Buying Behavior

Consumer behavior occurring under conditions of low consumer involvement and little significant brand difference.

Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior

Consumer behavior characterized by low consumer involvement but significant perceived brand differences, leading to frequent brand switching.

Click-Whirr

Robert Cialdini's term for automatic, blind mechanical patterns of action where a 'click' activates a 'whirr' (the appropriate sequence of behaviors).

Reciprocity Principle

An influence principle suggesting that people feel an obligation to repay, in kind, what another person has provided them.

Scarcity Principle

The principle that opportunities and items seem more valuable to people when their availability is limited or there is competition for them.

SHIFT Framework

A psychological framework for shifting consumers toward sustainable behavior consisting of Social influence, Habit formation, Individual self, Feelings and cognition, and Tangibility.

Perceived Environmental Friendliness (PEF) Bias

A consumer bias where packaging with additional paper is judged more eco-friendly than plain plastic, even if the total environmental impact is worse.

System 1 vs. System 2

System 1 is automatic, intuitive, feelings-based processing; System 2 is controlled, rational, and analytical cognition-based processing.

Nudge

An aspect of choice architecture that alters behavior in a predictable way without forbidding options or significantly changing economic incentives.